Saturday, August 27, 2016

I have been sitting here thinking about how much I love my girlfriends and how blessed I am to have them in my life. Rachael came up yesterday and of course we went to the Norbertine Sisters to visit Sister Mary Magdalene in the gift shop and buy a few soaps and other things. As we drove up, Rachael said, "hurry up and take a picture of the goats."

They were coming down the hillside with the goat herder and dogs and were way too quick for me. As you can see there's some construction going on here. A new chapel will be built as the present one is no longer large enough. The order began here in 1997 with five nuns and now there are forty. We are friends now with some of the sisters and we love it up there on the mountain.

Heading out for lunch afterward, we decided to try a back road, Cherry Lane, which used to be home to, yes, many cherry orchards. It's a lovely road that soon turns into a dirt road.

I was surprised to see a herd, or maybe it's not called a herd unless there's a whole lot of them. I forget, so now I have to check. OK, a flock of sheep, these were drinking water, took one look at me and decided to turn and walk away. Oh, well, not my day for goat or sheep pictures.

Here they all are. It's the first time I have seen sheep up here in August. They usually come in the spring, but, as you can see, the grass is very tall and the homes are very close, so there's a need for the services provided by the sheep and their shepherds. The shepherds are Basques that have come here for well over 100 years with their special breed Basque sheepdogs. Mary and I were fortunate to see these magnificent dogs at work here last spring. I think you can see the smoky haze from all the fires in this picture.

When I was a budget analyst in the Human Resources department at UCLA, Rosemary was the person in charge of all the administrative budgets. For many, many years I would turn in my reports to her and through all this, we became friends. Later she put in a good word for me and helped me secure a great job in UCLA's Capital Programs. So, we have been friends for many, many years.

We had not been in touch much in recent years, but after Errol passed away, she sent me gifts. Lovely bags, I have posted some here before, the one for my crochet and others too, I think. When a notice appeared in my mailbox the other day, I was puzzled. I had not ordered anything. Well, this is what arrived. That wonderful canvas Life is Good bag and the one below from Vera Bradley. I have coveted Vera Bradley's bags for a long time now, but I have been good, you know: Do I want it or do I need it? So I never bought one. Well, with a friend like Rosemary, I really don't need one, but how great that I now have one. Thank you my friend, although this is altogether way too much!

And finally, here's to Dr. Jones, the incredibly marvellous dentist you do not expect to find in a small town like this. After much measuring of my upper teeth and my bridge, my new front tooth was designed on a computer right in front of me, then put in an oven of sorts and baked until it was hard. As the dentist fitted it in my mouth, I asked if he could file down one front tooth that was longer than the other, which he did and I ended up thrilled. At my age, I had no idea I cared about whether I was long in one tooth or not, but it has made such a difference.

And of course all of these wonderful events have cheered me up no end.

Samson and Faith Say:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

P.S. If you prefer a shorter blog post, tell mommy to let us be the bloggers we were born to be. Short and sweet postings about the life of us dogs.

My friend Fran, AKA fishducky, sent this to me and Samson. It was compiled by BuzzFeed and is, well, I think totally AWESOME.

Faith Says: Mommy, Samson's just as handsome as those dogs and no one is called FLUFFMONSTER, only Samson. And I feel sorry for the lady who has to brush all the ones in picture 21! You should be glad you only have one to brush and, to herself: do it a bit more often.....